Best of Australia Quilts

Each Best of Show quilt from state guild shows around Australia is included in this display of excellence. Enjoy seeing the cream of the crop from each state, all in one place!

ACT: Canberra Quilters Inc

Iggy by Bronwyn Hill

Quiltmaker’s Statement: Iggy (Ignatius). From the Latin ‘ignis’, meaning fire, comes the quilt’s colour. The background was inspired by the harsh environs of the Galapagos Islands.

Queensland: Queensland Quilters Inc.

Obama by Nicholas Wilson

Quiltmaker’s Statement: I chose this classic Obama portrait as the subject because it had to be instantly recognisable but not obvious unless viewed from a distance. During his time as President, his face was projected on television, newspapers and social media, giving hope to people all around the world. I chose the heavily textured, Australian cotton fabric, as it has the look of embossed watercolour paper. The dark brown dots on the cream background gives muted, sepia tones to the image. The subtle quilting of the American flag in a matching thread, which is only visible upon closer inspection, gives reference to Obama’s dedication to his country

Victoria: Victorian Quilters Inc

Colourful Retina by Sugy Kim

Quiltmaker’s Statement: The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels the beauty of the world and also the sorrow of the world. What a human eye sees is an illusion of what is real. It is the retina of the eye which converts the light into neural signals and sends these signals on to the brain for visual recognition and interpretation. My quilt is the perception of a beautiful life seeing through a colourful retina. Having a colourful retina will always see the bright side of human life.

Northern Territory: Darwin Patchwork & Quilters

Darwin to Alice by Annie Radomski

Quiltmaker’s Statement: Town and Country, Block of the Day, 365 blocks. I have personalised the blocks changing the houses to look tropical, showing heritage sites, local buildings and shops in Darwin. Showing the city at midnight with each row the sky has got lighter and moved from Darwin City out to the rural area. Darwin to Katherine, showing small Territory places of Interest. One of the borders shows The Devils Marbles, Uluru and the Olgas with lots of hot air ballooning around Alice Springs. I loved adding local business that I support. This quilt took 16 months to complete.

Western Australia: West Australian Quilters’ Association (WAQA)

Bird is the Word by Tracey Bareli

Quiltmaker’s Statement: An altered pattern from the book by Philippa Naylor – Appliqué Mastery. A quilt I wanted to do ever since I first saw the book. The quilt is one piece so most of the applique is free motion stitched. One of Philippa’s techniques. Love the colour orange but was a challenge getting other colours to work.

Tasmania: Tasmanian Quilting Guild

Deconstructed Doilies by Katherine Jones

Quiltmaker’s Statement: This was inspired by FMQ designs made from bias binding appliqué.

South Australia: SA Quilters Guild

The Innocent by Adriana Newtown

Quiltmaker’s Statement: This quilt was inspired by something I feel deeply about – the effects of war on young, innocent children. After living in Hiroshima, Japan for several years and being surrounded daily by reminders of the terrible loss of life with the atomic bombings in WW2, as well as the recent global refugee crisis, I felt the need to make a quilt to remind us of the suffering of the children when adults make decisions that have long lasting repercussions on the most vulnerable. This quilt, although a collage of the aftermath of the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, represents the sorrow I feel for all the innocent children in the world.

NSW: QuiltNSW

Star Link by Pamela Brockwell

Quiltmaker’s Statement: I decided to make a contemporary quilt. The only purchased fabric was the grey, I used around 140 colours to make the stars, dots and scallops from my stash. I did buy 70 reels of assorted coloured threads for the quilting. I drafted the stars in two sizes. The small stars have pieces that are 1/8 of an inch wide, so they had to be foundation pieced. The small stars around the border represent the colour wheel. Just under 2 million stitches went into the quilting, circular designs linking the Stars is how I came up with the name Star Link. The quilt took about a year and a half to make!